What are employee vaccination rates for MS Coast schools? Few districts release data.
Four of the Mississippi Coast’s 11 school districts are tracking staff vaccination rates, and the averages punch significantly above local and statewide figures.
Overall, though, the Coast’s districts vary widely over decisions on collecting staff vaccine rates, use of federally funded incentives and distribution of vaccination averages.
Mississippi reports a 46% average vaccination rate. In Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties, the average is just 36% for those who have both shots.
Biloxi schools lead Coast districts, with 87% of their staff reportedly vaccinated. In the Pascagoula-Gautier School District, 85.36% of the staff is vaccinated, Moss Point School District has an employee vaccination rate of 84% and Pass Christian schools have an 83% vaccination rate.
Pass Christian is the only district of the three reporting that does not use vaccine incentive programs for their staff. Bay St. Louis-Waveland schools offer cash rewards for getting fully vaccinated but would not provide their vaccination data to the Sun Herald.
Harrison County, Hancock County, Ocean Springs, Gulfport and Long Beach school districts said they don’t record staff vaccination rates, while Jackson County School District did not respond to the Sun Herald.
None of the school districts along the Mississippi Coast require teacher vaccination.
Vaccine incentive programs
In September, the Mississippi Department of Education authorized school use of incentive programs for being vaccinated.
Biloxi, Bay St. Louis-Waveland and Pascagoula-Gautier are using federal COVID relief funds to reward teachers and staff for getting vaccinated, with payments of up to $1,000.
About $1.6 billion in Emergency Assistance to Non-Public Schools funds were sent to schools in Mississippi. Biloxi received around $18.3 million and Bay St. Louis-Waveland got around $6.6 million. Pascagoula-Gautier Superintendent Wayne Rodolfich said his district received $34 million in the ESSER funds.
The Biloxi School District reports that more than half of its employees were vaccinated before the incentive program began.
“We had over 400 staff members who got vaccinated during that initial wave on campus, and that didn’t include the vaccinated because they met the earliest thresholds of being 65 and older or having underlying health conditions,” Superintendent Marcus Boudreaux said.
Boudreaux said that he’s steadily distributed literature and information to staff on why vaccinations are the best option to combat COVID.
“I just tried to put a positive spin on the benefits of vaccination and the benefits of being able to continue in-person instruction,” he said. “I think just the message and trying to stay out of the political aspect of it, and just looking at information, facts and data.”
The district has seen a further uptick in staff vaccinations since announcing the incentive program.
October 8 was Gulfport’s deadline for staff to submit proof of full vaccination for the district to pay $1,000 checks, to be distributed the week before Thanksgiving break. The district reports 740 staff members have submitted proof of vaccination.
Bay-Waveland schools Superintendent Sandra Reed said the district would look at its staff vaccination number near the Nov. 30 deadline to submit proof of vaccination for $1,000 checks.
“We do have an incentive program that’s due to roll out mid-December, but we don’t have the information about how many are vaccinated at this point,” Reed said. “They have to submit documentation and then that payment will be distributed right before we get out for the Christmas holidays.”
Pascagoula-Gautier set a Nov. 1 deadline for their teachers to submit proof of full vaccination in order to receive their incentives. The $1,000 payouts will be dispersed for full-time employees and part-time employees will get $500.
Five MS Coast districts don’t collect staff vaccine data
Harrison County, Hancock County, Ocean Springs, Long Beach and Gulfport school districts do not record staff vaccination rates.
Harrison County School District spokesperson Trang Pham-Bui said the district also does not use ESSER funds for a teacher vaccination incentive program.
Gulfport Superintendent Glen East also said his district does “not keep up” with staff vaccination rates, but has sponsored four teacher-focused vaccination events.
Hancock and Ocean Springs school districts said they do not record their staff vaccination rates because it isn’t a mandate for employment.
A Long Beach School District spokesperson said the district doesn’t collect numbers because it hasn’t mandated the vaccine and it would be private medical information.
It is legal to disperse teacher vaccination rates?
Long Beach joins a few school districts that told the Sun Herald they don’t know if it is legal to record and report vaccination rates, then give them to the media.
“That’s privileged medical information, and that’s just not something we’re collecting at this time,” said Bay St. Louis-Waveland Superintendent Reed. “Whether or not that’s information for public consumption, I’m not sure what the legal ramifications of that are. We’ll have to check and see. I just don’t know at this point.”
Kayte Spector-Bagdady, who helps direct the University of Michigan’s Center for Bioethics & Social Sciences in Medicine, said institutions or workplaces can legally ask for vaccination proof.
“Not only might they have the legal right, but they might also have the legal obligation to protect others,” she said.
Sharing the aggregated data of how many teachers in a school or district are currently vaccinated “does not violate anyone’s privacy,” the experts told Education Week last March.
State and local privacy laws typically prohibit employers from disclosing certain employees’ medical information, however.
This article and live event is supported by the Journalism and Public Information Fund, a fund of the Gulf Coast Community Foundation.
This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 11:02 AM.
CORRECTION: CORRECTION: Moss Point School District has an employee vaccination rate of 84%. An earlier version of this story stated the school district had not replied to the Sun Herald. It has been updated to reflect the new information.
